Episode Summary

After passing stage one of the training, Naruto moves into stage two: power training. Jiraiya realizes that, like him, Naruto has a hard time concentrating, so he paints a spiral in the palm of Naruto's hand to help him to focus. With the aid of the spiral and a quick flashback to Iruka-sensei, Naruto completes stage two. Meanwhile, Tsunade's luck become uncommonly good, which worries her. After being talked into sightseeing by her assistant, Tsunade meets Orochimaru...and she doesn't look at all pleased.moreless

Naruto has the Will of Fire!

This 88th episode was very good in my opinion. I think Naruto really is a character who we can identify ourselves with. He never givs up, he does the possible and the impossible to get what he wants. He's stubborn, that's for sure. But he uses that in his own profit. In this episode we see flashbacks of Naruto's life at the academy. Iruka worked himself hard to try to get their students attention but that's very hard to do. However, Naruto remembered his teachings and used them to achieve what we wanted. He's almost learning this new move and I can't wait to see how he's going to manage it.moreless

Okay class, today's lesson, concentration!

Naruto continues his training and this time, he has to learn how to concentrate. Jiraiya drew a single point on his handle to help him do it but after days and days of failed blown up rubber balls, the pain is starting to pile up on Naruto. A leaf on Naruto's head reminds him of a flashback of him at the academy with all the guys. It is flashbacks like these that while short in length, make an episode great to watch. Seeing them dick around as kids just offered a huge treat to the viewers, and in the end Naruto does pop the rubber ball. That isn't all that happens in this episode; Orochimaru is making his move in finding the legendary medical ninja Tsunade, and unfortunately for Jiraiya, he found her first. It created great suspense for the coming episode.moreless

Naruto tries to master the second step of his jutsu.

Jiraiya has shown Naruto the next step that he must complete. Naruto has to pop a rubber ball now instead of a balloon. The rubber ball is more dense and is much harder to pop. Naruto is able to deflate ball after ball, but cannot get it to pop. Jiraiya draws a symbol on his hand and tells him to concentrate on that spot. Naruto tries and tries and still cannot do it. Naruto thinks back to his younger days in Iruka sensei's class. He wishes he had learned to concetrate back then. Then an idea hits him. He draws another symbol on his palm and....moreless

Naruto finishes the first step of learning that Rasengan by figuring out a way to make it easier. Naruto finishes the second step. Tsunade feels that something bad is about to happen and then she is met Orochimaru and Kabuto.moreless

In this episode, Naruto finally finishes the first step to learning the Rasengan and figures out that it is easier to pop the water balloon with both of his hands. I was starting to think that it would take even more episodes for Naruto to finish the first step. Jiraiya tells Naruto to pop a rubber ball. Jiraiya then sees that he isn't as different as Naruto because they both don't concentrate very well. He paints a leaf on the palm of Naruto's and to show where he needs to concentrate his chakra which I think was a great technique for Naruto because he did finish the second step to learning the Rasengan. Tsunade is having a good streak on gambling but she feels that something bad is going to happen because of it. She is met by Orochimaru and Kabuto. It was a good episode because I just thought that it would take a very long time for Naruto to learn Rasengan but he mastered the second step in one episode. +moreless

Naruto finishes the first step of learning that Rasengan by figuring out a way to make it easier. Naruto finishes the second step. Tsunade feels that something bad is about to happen and then she is met Orochimaru and Kabuto.moreless

In this episode, Naruto finally finishes the first step to learning the Rasengan and figures out that it is easier to pop the water balloon with both of his hands. I was starting to think that it would take even more episodes for Naruto to finish the first step. Jiraiya tells Naruto to pop a rubber ball. Jiraiya then sees that he isn't as different as Naruto because they both don't concentrate very well. He paints a leaf on the palm of Naruto's and to show where he needs to concentrate his chakra which I think was a great technique for Naruto because he did finish the second step to learning the Rasengan. Tsunade is having a good streak on gambling but she feels that something bad is going to happen because of it. She is met by Orochimaru and Kabuto. It was a good episode because I just thought that it would take a very long time for Naruto to learn Rasengan but he mastered the second step in one episode.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)

Even though we've previously seen Naruto as distant from his peers, this episode shows him running out of class with Kiba, sleeping like Shikamaru, and eating in class near Choji. What's more, they all have the same lax mindset toward Iruka's leaf-related method of teaching. This, however, does not conclude that they were "friends".

Orochimaru: (Groans) My arms!Man: Are you okay, Orochimaru? You must take your medicine, quickly!(Orochimaru slashes the man, causing him to bleed all of the floor)Kabuto: I just came back, and I need to clean the room already?

To help him concentrate his chakra better. Naruto changes the spiral on his hand to the leaf symbol on his forhead protector. This comes from an old exercise Iruka tried to make him do which helped to mold chakra.

About halfway into the episode, when Tsunade is at the slots machine, she gets three 7s in a row. When you see the slots symbols, you can see a leaf, a snake, a slug, and a frog. These are all references to the Sannin.

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